The main character, Control, has a recurring dream about falling into a cove’s abyss. In the darkness, he sees strange shapes, such as “ocean behemoths,” and listens to the whispers of the world (3). Then he falls slowly into the abyss, hitting the black water without a sound. Sometimes, he gets this falling sensation when he is awake.

On his first day at the Southern Reach facility as the new director, Control and the assistant director, Grace, observe the three survivors from the 12th expedition into Area X: the biologist, the surveyor, and the anthropologist. The surveyor was found at her house, the anthropologist at her husband’s medical office, and the biologist by an overgrown lot, staring at a brick wall. Control decides he only needs to question the biologist. Grace is surprised, but she removes the other two women from the interrogation room.

Control thinks of how the Southern Reach has become a “backward, backwater agency” of the government (7) since they have not been able to discover any concrete answers about Area X in over 30 years of studying, nor gather worthwhile information from the very few people who have survived their expeditions.